Talked my grandpa out of getting a vintage laser printer from 1993

Last weekend my grandpa found some old LaserJet from 1993 at a thrift store for 20 bucks and wanted to buy it. I told him to hold up and think about it because those things weigh like 50 pounds and use proprietary toner cartridges you can't find anymore. He said 'but it's built tough, they don't make em like that.' I reminded him that modern printers are cheap and the toner costs less. He then showed me a picture of the inside and the rollers were all crusty and the fuser had a burn mark. I told him it could literally start a fire if the power supply is shot. He finally gave up and bought a Brother laser for 80 bucks on sale instead. Has anyone else had to talk someone out of a fire hazard from the early 90s?

2 comments

2 Comments

derek9392d ago

Does your grandpa also have a basement full of old VCRs he swears he's gonna fix one day? @wrenwilson nailed it with the CRT monitor thing, I swear it's like a compulsion for that generation. My own dad tried to give me his old minivan from 1998 because "it still has 50,000 miles left in it" but it had a check engine light that had been on for three years. They see the thick metal casing and think it means forever, but they don't see the dried out capacitors or the corroded power supply waiting to pop. At least he didn't burn down the garage finding out the hard way.

wrenwilson2d ago

Do you ever notice how boomers and older gen x folks are just conditioned to think heavy = quality, even when it's clearly a death trap? lol. Like, I get the impulse, my uncle still tries to drag home CRT monitors from the curb because "they have that retro look," but the power consumption and fire risk are no joke. It's this weird nostalgia for a time when things were built like tanks, but they forget the tanks were also full of asbestos and had a 20% chance of exploding. Glad your grandpa came around, a 50 pound paperweight isn't a good deal at any price.